About $2.5 million in penalties will be taken out of Minnesota school districts' state aid payments because they did not meet a teacher contract deadline, an educators union said Monday.
Out of the state's 344 districts, 24 face a fine of $25 per student because they did not meet the Jan. 15 deadline to have a new two-year contract in place. That had the biggest impact in Minneapolis, which Education Minnesota said will have to pay $945,566 because it has almost 38,000 students.
St. Cloud has the next highest fine at $264,492, followed by Eastern Carver County with a fine of $264,212. Lake of the Woods faces a $15,000 fine because it has 600 students.
All together, the 24 districts that did not meet the deadline have 98,723 students and will pay $2,468,090 in fines.
About 93 percent of school districts were able to finish a contract before the deadline. Education Minnesota estimates more than half of the state's teachers accepted salary freezes in one or both years of their new contracts.
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Salary increases averaged just 0.77 percent this year and 0.96 percent next year, the lowest settlements since the 1971 Public Employment Labor Relations Act gave teachers the right to collective bargaining.
Johnson reports on local K-12 education. Reach him at (701) 780-1105; (800) 477-6572, ext. 105; or send e-mail to rjohnson@gfherald.com .
